Hearts are now bigger than Sunday’s Edinburgh derby.
They are on a different level from Hibs. And, if they want to be achieving their goals this season, it’s a simple fact they need to be beating teams who finished in the bottom six last term. What I have said there might sound stupid in terms of the supporters because it’s a huge occasion in the city and the game gives so much to those fans.
The difference between winning and losing can lead to weeks of joy or pain in the workplace or pub. Listen, I know what the derby is all about. I know what it means.
But when you strip away all the other stuff and break it right down to a 90-minute game between two sets of players, Hearts just need to be winning. If the Jambos want to finish third again, get into Europe once more and eat into the gap between them and the Old Firm, the players should be looking at this in the manner you would look at a normal game.
They should treat it like Ross County last weekend or a clash with Motherwell. Both of those clubs finished above Hibs last season in the final table.
If Hearts had a game against any side that finished in the bottom half last year, it would be seen as a team they have to beat. That’s what Hibs are.
It’s different when it is Rangers against Celtic. They are always first and second in the table and, for the most part, they are two equal teams.
I look right now and I don’t see Hearts and Hibs as being equal. Nowhere near it.
Hearts are a better team. A much better team. And they are adding to it with more new players possibly arriving this week.
Of course, embrace the occasion. It’s a great day out for the fans, it’s a big one, but the level Hearts are at now, it’s about three points.
If they don’t get them, they are down on their tally of points or expected points and that’s not what I feel they are about now.
You don’t need to tell me that anything can happen on the day. If you do, it just gives me an excuse to roll out the story about my 70-yard winner at Easter Road with a busted knee to win a League Cup quarter-final at Easter Road when we were in administration and written off beforehand.
These games can come down to who wants it more, who has the biggest balls to embrace the occasion and play on the day. The mentality of a team can change quickly and a derby win can flip everything. It could do great things for Hibs in their position.
But that’s the point. You are talking about the position they are in. Hibs scrambled over the line against 10-man St Johnstone on day one having already been bumped out of the Premier Sports Cup at the group stage.
I said last week that I had seen Hearts against Stoke in pre-season and was so impressed by the fact they had gone to the next level in terms of the patterns of play and the talent. I felt they’d moved on and I was taken aback.
Last Saturday against County there were more signs of it in the second half. Look, I’m aware they didn’t play so well in the first half but I have to say I actually liked that in a sense.
You are never going to play well every single week, in every moment of every game. The best teams don’t. That’s just a fact.
But what the best teams do is stay in the game when it’s not flowing because they know, at some point in the match, it will and one of the flair players in your team will get you something. That’s what happened with Alan Forrest getting the first goal. It was a magnificent team goal.
His pass, the third-man run, the pull back to him and the great finish. Then Barrie McKay’s goal was just out of the top drawer.
I kept saying last year that he just needed to add goals to his play because his assists and general play were superb and that one to get going in the Premiership was just sheer impudence and skill.
To pull that 50-yard ball out of the sky with a touch that had two defenders running into each other? At that point, I would have hit it first time but McKay is so confident that he just bided his time, sat the keeper on the floor and rolled into the net.
That’s the quality Hearts have. It’s far more than Hibs possess. Take away the fact it’s a derby on Sunday. If Hearts are going to do anything close to what they did last season, they have to be bigger than that. They are expected to win and need to win.
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